One Too Many
by Amymimi
Summary: Jesse yells at James as always.... But she isn't prepared for trouble.....
1. The Fight

"Pika-CHUUUU!" Just as Team Rocket was feeling a bit of confidence in their efforts to capture the pokemon, Pikachu used the thunderbolt attack to send them "blasting off again." Ash, Misty, and Brock sighed happily as they watched Team Rocket fly over the horizon of the setting sun far away until they became a little bright speck in the sky. It had been a good ending to a beautiful day, and the sunset was just gorgeous.

Team Rocket, however, flew screaming through the sky, was blinded by the sun, and landed on their heads in a smelly swamp. Within a few seconds, Meowth had popped himself out of the sticky mud and began to clean his fur.

"Jesse, James, c'mon!" he grunted as he shook mud off a paw.

As soon as he had said this, both Jesse and James had surfaced and were sitting facing each other, covered with the slimy filth. After looking at each other, they both starting making grotesque faces and wiping the mud off their own faces, clothes, and bodies.

"How disgusting," Jesse muttered. "It figures we had to land in a mudhole!"

"It's actually a swamp," James remarked with slight optimism in his tone.

Jesse could not take this good nature from James. Immediately she smacked him over the head with her grime-filled boot.

"Why don't you just shut up, James? You're always the one who makes us lose the battles with that little ten-year old twerp!"

"I'm not the one who makes us lose! Pikachu is really strong; that's why the boss wants him too!" he replied in a whiny tone.

Jesse groaned as she stood up from her place on the ground, now looming above James. "-And I'm also sick of your constant whining! When will you ever grow up? Every time that we lose you act like this. And every time we have lost! And you still can't stop acting like a baby!"

Jesse's face had turned red. She was furious with James this time. There'd be no beating her anger this time and James knew this. He automatically cringed after she had spoken, expecting another hit from her footwear. When the blow hadn't come within a few seconds, he sat straight-backed but frightened and he attempted to justify his actions.

"Jesse, I..." As soon as he had looked up at her to talk and was just going to try to reason with her, he was slammed once again, but this time she used her mallet.

"Oww!" James cowered down and crawled away from Jesse so that he could safely stand up without being hit again.

Meowth broke up the quarrel by changing the subject. "Hey, guys, we gotta find someplace ta sleep tanite. We can't stay by da swamp, way too muddy here."

Meowth was used to breaking up the constant fights between Jesse and James. Well, they weren't really fights. Most of the time, James had said something dumb, something in a self-pitying tone, or a complaint, and Jesse would hit him. Once in a while he would try to get more words in with her, but it had never worked and would probably never work.  
Once James had gotten a safe distance away, he stood up and faced Jesse, who was now straightening out her skirt and scoffing. Gosh, to see her smile at me would be… James's thoughts were interrupted by Jesse's yell.

"JAMES, LET'S GET A MOVE ON! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU TODAY?" When James had began to slowly walk towards their destination, Jesse, who had been travelling in front of James, saw how slow he was going and did a fast turnaround. This greatly startled the daydreaming James and caused him to lose balance and fall backwards into the swamp mud, still surrounding them on all sides. The mud he fell on just happened to splatter all over Jesse.

Within a few seconds, James began to sit up, but first looked to Jesse's expression for approval. This time there would be no approval. Her formerly beautiful blue eyes were fixed in an angry cold stare at his figure on the ground. Her fists were clenched, and her breaths had become more rapid and shallow. She was the angriest she had ever felt that she could get and she was going to vent her anger on James. Just before she was planning on lunging at him, she calmed her adrenaline down slightly and decided to hurt him verbally instead of physically. It had been a long day for her and she was sick and tired of this never-ending swamp all around her. Letting the harsh air out with each word she spoke, she tried to hold back her intense feeling of anger by glaring James down and aiming each arrow-headed syllable right for his heart.

"I don't ever want to see you again. You've ruined every goal of my life. You are worthless."

After speaking the terrible, Jesse turned away quickly to hide the tears that now filled her eyes. James sat there, shocked at what he had just heard. Jesse turned her back to him and faced the sunset, the tears streaking down her face now. She already was sorry for what she had said to him.

To Jesse, the words came impulsively. They left her mouth and sliced James's poor soul open. Each successive syllable hammered James into more and more despair and depression. Jesse had accomplished what she had wanted to do. She didn't plan to hurt James as much as she actually had done...


	2. A Separation

As Jesse stood blinking the tears out of her eyes and thinking of how to say she was sorry, James, still sitting in the mud, began to silently cry. Not wanting to let Jesse see him like this, since she hated him anyway, he stood up and ran away from Jesse towards a forest he spotted a few hundred yards on the opposite edge of the swamp. As he ran the ten minutes or so that it took him to run to the forest, he thought about how broken-hearted he was.

"I'll never satisfy her. Now I know that she hates me!" he cried as he caught his breath. Tearfully, he glanced back at Jesse, still with back turned, one last time before disappearing quickly into the thick woods. Of course, from as far away as he was, he didn't see Jesse's shoulders heaving involuntarily as she sobbed.

Jesse had finally come up with what to say to James to maybe have him forgive her for her nasty spiteful remark. Wiping off the tears covering her sorrowful face, she mustered all the courage that she could to tell him what she really thought about him. When she turned around to face him, she immediately cried out in sadness. James was gone! She hadn't been turned around that long for him to just get up and be completely out of sight.

"James!" she yelled desperately into the still air. In her thoughts of James, she didn't even realize that Meowth had been gone for a while also. Looking around frantically, she couldn't see any movement of anything around her. All she saw was barren swampland, and a forest some distance off.

"He could never have gotten over to the forest that quickly! What if someone kidnapped him?" she hopelessly mumbled to herself. Becoming frightened for his life, she called out his name a few more times, and with no results, started to trudge over to the forest. It had begun to grow dark and a heavy fog blanketed the forest with an impenetrable veil.

It took Jesse an hour of stumbling around in the dark just to reach the outskirts of the forest. When Jesse had finally gotten to the forest, she decided it was time to get sleep. Her eyes, exhausted from crying, would not help her to find James at this time of night, in the blanket of fog. In her effort to find James, Jesse didn't even realize that she was totally lost.

James wandered deeper and deeper into the forest, bawling his eyes out. Every few steps he would cry out. "Jesse hates me! Ohhh, I want to die! My life is worth nothing!"

He stumbled between the trees, tears streaking down his cheeks. His Team Rocket uniform was muddy and ripped, but he didn't care. The rips that were already on his clothes became bigger as he scraped against trees in his blind journey of depression. All he had ever wanted to do was to please Jesse, and he couldn't even do that. His life was as good as over.  
On and on James trod, into the black of night. After running into a few trees head on, he decided to fall over and attempt to rest. Before he blanked out completely he thought awhile.

"She probably doesn't even care about where I went," he thought. "She'll be much happier without me weighing her down. I'm sure she's probably already caught Ash's Pikachu and is Giovanni's top Rocket. Hell, I'll bet she's laughing maniacally right now." 

James was dead wrong. Sleeping miserably in the same forest as he, Jesse lie with her head on a rock and her feet covered in dried mud. The rest of her body was shivering in the cold dense fog. As she slept restlessly she dreamt about the good times that she and James had experienced. The times when they had came close to stealing countless people's pokemon. The times that they had almost caught Ash's pikachu. Most of all, she dreamt about that time that she and James had escaped James's horrid fiancée, Jezebel. She was overjoyed when he had returned to her. They had been so happy at times, yet all the bad times were like bundles of emotions and memories hitting each other, destroying the good memories and making more bad ones. And now everything that her and James had gone through, everything was wiped out with a few simple words. Her words...


	3. The Pursuit

As James dreamlessly slept through the chilly night and Jesse occasionally woke up and cried for her partner, Meowth crawled up into a tree and looked for his friends while atop the perch. He realized that he had left the pair behind, but at that time he had thought they were going to eventually catch up. Now Jesse nor James was in sight.

Jesse awoke at daybreak. Each time she blinked, her eyes burned horribly from the salty tears of the night before. Dusty dew covered her hair, making her once-gorgeous rose-colored hair look like a dirty clump of matted rugs. Her boots were now a brown tint because of the hardened swamp mud covering them. She sat up quickly and glanced quickly about her. Seeing no sign of life around her, she stood up, brushed off her clothes, and began to search around on the ground for footprints. She then came up with a great idea to find James. Her pokemon Arbok had a keen sense of smell, far better than hers, and would most likely be able to smell out Weezing in James's pokeball. Smiling a hopeful smile, Jesse pulled out the pokeball and through it into the air.

"Arbok, Go!" she yelled happily.

"Charrrr-bok," Arbok hissed. It looked around to see whom it was supposed to battle, but found no one. Jesse could see that the snake was confused and told it what to do. "Arbok, you know what James's Weezing smells like, right?" Arbok nodded matter-of-factly. "Bok-Charrr-bok!"

"Well, could you track Weezing down by smelling him out?"

Arbok nodded again and began to sniff the air with its burrow-like nostrils. It slithered around excitedly, trying its best to catch a whiff of the poisonous gas Weezing gave off. Within a few minutes, Arbok was onto a scent. It began to slither deeper into the forest to where Jesse supposed it would find James and his pokemon.

James sprang up, hearing the sound of something monstrous heading towards him.

"Ahhh! It's going to eat me!" he screamed frightfully.

Before he could even see the gigantic creature that was making the sound, he sprinted off as fast as he could away from it. As he ran, he looked back continually to see if the pokemon was gaining on him. While he was looking back, he couldn't see what was in front of him. Somehow, he avoided close encounters with trees, but within a few seconds, James had run himself right into a briar patch. Sharp briars ripped into his clothes and the thorns pulled him back, preventing him from moving. The sound of slithering and cracks of tree limbs came closer. James, terrified more of the creature than of his being stuck, managed to unhook himself from the briars as he pulled away, tearing much of his skin and hair out. Scraps of his clothing hung from him in tatters as he attempted to pull the extra thorns out of his face. In this wild struggle for escape, James had dropped his two pokeballs, including the one holding Weezing.

Arbok eventually came to James's dropped pokeballs. Jesse picked them up hastily, and let Weezing and Victreebell out of the pokeballs to make sure that they were James's. Weezing and Victreebell came out. Jesse immediately grew worried.

"Where's James? Why would he leave his pokemon here? He had to have been kidnapped!"

Sadly she took a wilted rose of his off of her belt loop and studied it.

"Oh…. Where is he?" Her eyes began to fill up with new tears as she paced back and forth examining the pokeballs. She walked about with her hair covering her eyes so the pokemon wouldn't see her crying. She still had to be tough and mean.

"Weezing, do you know the scent of James?"

Weezing looked confused and coughed smog. "Damn it, Weezing, you're just as stupid as J--" She stopped in the middle of her sentence, realizing what she had just said and openly sobbed to the two pokemon, who had never seen her act this way before.

"I can't believe what I almost said! What the hell is wrong with me?" she wailed. "Someone as sweet and innocent as he is doesn't deserve a wretch like me!"

James ran and ran until he was exhausted but sure the thing had stopped pursuing him. He collapsed, panting on the cool, fern-covered dirt of the forest.

"What was that?" he gasped between pants. "It sounded huge!"

Pulling himself up to a slouched sitting position, he ran a trembling hand through his periwinkle hair and realized that it was knotted and ratty now.

"Oh, I shouldn't have pulled out of that briar bush so fast." He attempted to comb his cut-up fingers through his destroyed strands, but they just wouldn't untangle.

"Owww! Oh, I can't do this!" He whined. Seeing no good coming from complaining, he thought long and hard for a minute, then decided to let out Victreebell. Maybe Victreebell could use his vine whip to whip out the tangles in his hair.

He looked down at his belt loop to grab his grass type's pokeball, but it was gone! Both of his pokemon were gone! In his last-ditch effort to find them, he looked all around where he was sitting for the pokeballs. Within a few moments, he gave up, disgusted. Not only did he lose Jesse, but now both of his pokemon! He wouldn't be able to protect himself from any wild pokemon he might encounter. James was in grave danger!


	4. A Hope

After crying for all the horrible mistakes she had made in the treatment of her partner, Jesse began to get a headache and sat down glumly on the ground. As she held her throbbing forehead and sobbed silently, she traced the shape of a half-heart on the ground with a piece of rock, her representation of the destroyed love that could've been. Weezing, Arbok, and Victreebell tried to comfort her, but none of them saw the sly feline hanging above Jesse's head on a tree limb. Within seconds, the catlike pokemon had jumped on Jesse's head and was yelling at her as he swiped her with his claws.

"What did ya tink you was doin', leavin' Meowth ta go ahead witout knowin' yous was gone?"

"Meowth!" Jesse was happy she met up with someone she knew. Her emotion quickly turned to rage.

"GET OFF MY HEAD, YOU MANGY CAT!" she shouted at the pokemon in her hair.

She grabbed his tail and yanked him off her head while avoiding his sharp claws. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, MEOWTH? YOU ARE SET TO RUIN MY PERFECTION, AREN'T YOU!"

She tossed Meowth a few yards away and popped out her compact so she could look at her face. Although Meowth was now bruised, he stood up quickly.

"Where's James?"

Jesse was interrupted and suddenly stopped thinking of herself for once. She put away her mirror and looked sadly at the impatient cat.

"James... has been kidnapped." She let out the breath she had been holding when she told Meowth the bad news.

"Well, how do ya know dat for sure?" Meowth crossed his arms, leaning forward for the answer.

"Don't you see, Meowth? He left his pokeballs here! Now, why would he do that? Tell me, Meowth..." She crossed her arms and gave Meowth a sly look as she flipped her still-dirty hair to the other side.

"Maybe he was runnin, Jess, ya ever tink of dat? He coulda dropped em and jus now realized dat his pokemon are gone."

Jesse got a frightened look in her eyes. "I hope so..."


	5. Not Prepared For Trouble

As chills ran down his spine, James stood up slowly, feeling his knees shaking.

"I'm going... to die here," he murmured.

He suspected that a wild pokemon would probably kill him or he'd starve to death. Little did he know that there was another powerful unknown force wanting both him and Jesse dead.

At daybreak a Team Rocket stealth helicopter flew above the treetops of the forest, pinpointing Jesse and James's locations with powerful binoculars. The pilot of the chopper did not know why he was tracking down Jesse and James, or why, that once he had found them, The Boss requested him to only state their locations and not pick them up. He zipped around on his helicopter until he spotted the bright red R on Jesse's Team Rocket jacket with his binoculars. Immediately he mapped the location and began to scan for James.

Once he had spotted and mapped out both Jesse and James's locations, the pilot called Giovanni on the videophone and stated the locations.

"Boss, the female Team Rocket member is in sector 8, zone 5 of the Fog Forest."

Giovanni, smiling evilly, stroked his Persian as he examined his map of the forest that Jesse and James were in.

"Thank you. Update me when their positions change."

He could see the confused look on the pilot's face when he didn't mention doing anything else to the two.

"You see, I am going to retire Jesse and James early," he continued. "They have failed me much too often and I no longer need them to attempt to do Team Rocket's jobs. Now that they are finally apart, I can 'retire' them separately."

A look of horror came across the pilot's face, but once he saw the Boss's satisfied expression, he turned it into a sly smile. Trust would now be forcibly established between the Boss and the Rocket pilot.

Between videophone calls of updates on location, Giovanni locked himself alone in his office, trying to think of how to make Jesse and James's 'retirements' look like an accident. On his map, Pokeland was divided into even, organized sectors and zones and both Rocket members' locations fell into the zones and sectors on his maps. He pondered for a while and decided to kill off James first. With a cold look in his eyes, he spoke softly to himself his plan for James's demise.

"James is the more sensitive type. He's even less a Rocket than Jesse is. Butch told me that James was in love with Jesse. I wonder how hurt he'd be to find that Jesse loves someone else..."

Missing Weezing and Weepinbell already, James decided to retrace his steps to look for his dropped pokeballs. Cautiously he trekked through the forest staring at the ground for his footsteps. After ten minutes of not seeing any footprints, James's shoulders slumped dejectedly and he felt the tears coming on. The salty, stinging tears, crying about his new, lousy, drastically changed life. Crying for the decent life he ran away from. It wasn't so bad with Jesse. Yeah, she hit him a lot and was almost always angry with him, but as long as she was around him he was content. And he had destroyed it by blowing the fight out of proportion. Not paying any attention to where he was walking, he tripped over a thick clump of weeds in front of him as he thought about the times when Jesse wasn't angry. Well, there were times, usually when Ash and his Pikachu weren't around. It seemed that when Pikachu stepped out to attack them, Jesse got into her bad moods. That stupid Pikachu... James had a plan. Feeling confident in his efforts, he shouted the plan out loud.

"Well, I'm going to level up my Weezing, and blast that Pikachu off just like it does to Team Rocket all the time! Then, I'll find Jesse and tell her what I did! She'll love me forever!"

He then realized what a foolish proposition he had made. He stomped on the ground as he yelled.

"I can't defeat Pikachu! My Weezing is gone! Jesse is gone! Not only that, but she hates me, too! How could she ever love me!" Shaking his head sadly, James trod a little faster, hoping to find his way out of the vast forest without getting eaten up by a wild pokemon. His only plan now was to survive.

Jesse clipped James's pokeballs onto her belt with her pokemon.

"I must find him, Meowth, to apologize for the nasty thing that I did. He might get hurt by wild pokemon since he doesn't have any pokemon with him! And if he was kidnapped by Jezebel, he has no pokemon to defend himself against her!" Meowth could tell that she was in a state of panic, and tried to comfort her.

"Everyting will be alright, Jess; we'll find him."

The fateful update came several hours later, when James neared the edge of the forest. "Boss, the male Rocket will be approaching the road on the eastern border of the forest."

"Hmm..." Giovanni smiled and continued petting his Persian as he devised a foolproof plan to kill James.


	6. An Evil Scheme

Glancing down at his torn boots every few seconds, James continued clomping through the forest downheartedly. He had been walking for hours now and still hadn't reached the edge of the forest. Not only that, but he hadn't run into Jesse or Meowth during his whole forest trek. He had ran into plenty of brambles, however, and thorn bushes galore. His Team Rocket uniform was in tatters. The tatters that hung loosely from his uniform were covered in the sticky round brambles, the impossible-to-remove kind.

All morning James trod through the woods, until around four in the afternoon. As he continued scanning far ahead of where he was headed, he spotted something not green, not brown, and not the usual woodland colors. It was dark gray and flat! Cement! The beautiful road lay so precious and inviting on the ground, the tiny pebbles scattered on it sparkling in the afternoon sunshine. Running faster towards the road using the last strength he had, James reached it within a few seconds. Once he had reached it, he immediately threw himself onto the edge of the cement and kissed it happily. He had found a road! Now all he had to do was wait for a passerby to pick him up...

"Boss, the male Rocket has reached the road, Route 152," the helicopter pilot rung in.

"Is he remaining near the road?"

"Yes, sir. It appears that he wants a ride from whoever drives by."

"Thank you, pilot. Continue updating me if his position should change."

The Boss had thought up a brilliant scheme to rid himself of James. A few hours ago, following the pilot's calculations of when James would reach the road, Giovanni knew what he would do. Immediately he had made an announcement to the Rockets: Jesse lookalikes meet him in his office. After waiting ten minutes for anybody to show up, Giovanni grew impatient. He screamed into the P.A., "ANY FEMALE ROCKET IN THE BUILDING REPORT TO THE BOSS'S OFFICE!"

Soon a trio of female Rockets rushed in, obviously panicked. Slightly they bowed to their angered boss, furiously stroking the Persian behind the glass desk. They tousled their hair nervously as Giovanni inspected them from his seat. One woman had green eyes and curly blue hair; another had brown eyes and spiky yellow hair; and another had purple eyes and short black hair. None had the hair color, hairstyle, or the eye color of James's partner. He dismissed them and called in instead Butch and Cassidy, the Rocket members most in touch with Jesse and James, and his most trusted employees.

As soon as Butch and Cassidy arrived, which took a good ten minutes since they were out on a job, Giovanni glared them down.

"Alright, you two, do you know any Jesse lookalikes in Team Rocket or anywhere else?"

Butch looked confused and croaked, "Why, Boss?"

"BECAUSE I SAID SO!" Giovanni roared.

Cassidy began to stutter fearfully. "Well, uh, we can't think of any in Team Rocket..."

Butch was heavy in thought. "Wait, I think I know a woman who looks EXACTLY like Jesse..."

"WHO? WHO IS IT!" Giovanni demanded.

Butch cringed. "She's got red hair, and blue eyes, looks just like Jesse..."

"TELL ME WHO IT IS NOW."

"Uh, real rich girl, she is." Butch saw that the Boss had pulled a gun on him. He had to think fast. "Uh...James's fiancée!"

"JAMES HAS A FIANCEE! HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS?"

"Technically, you do know, Boss," Cassidy meekly stated. "It's in your TR records."

Giovanni was just about to shoot her when he realized what a help they had both been.

"Is she capable of evil?" he asked earnestly.

"I think so; I've heard terrible stories about her... And what she did to James..."

"Do you know where she lives?" The Boss continued to implore on the woman.

"I think she lives at James's estate." Butch was content. He had satisfied the Boss, something that neither Jesse nor James could ever do.

"Thank you. That will be all," Giovanni motioned. After the two Rockets had left, he walked over to his record shelves and pulled James's record out.

"Childhood, education, parents' names, location... James's estate... 108 Morgan Drive, Lake Of Rage, in Johto..."

Jesse wandered aimlessly through the forest, hoping to find James before it was too late. Weezing and Arbok scanned ahead slightly, in case there was any danger in store for her. Once in a while she'd sit on a fallen log and attempt to scratch the caked mud off her boots. Her feet were much heavier with the thick deposit of stinky swamp sewage on them. The smell of them was grossing out even Weezing, and he ventured far ahead of her so as not to have to get a whiff of them now and then. Meowth walked a little ahead of Jesse within speaking distance. Occasionally when she would stop to pity herself, he comforted her, assuring her that James would be okay.

"Hello. Is Jezebel there?"

A strong southern accent answered. "Yessir, this is she."

"Do you know James Morgan?"

"Yes, I'm his fiancée..."

Giovanni fingered through the papers, scanning for any information of their past together. Finally he found some. 'James Morgan ran away from his estate because of fiancée Jezebel.' He asked her a question regarding the relationship.

"Do you want him to be your husband?"

"Of course, but he don't like me much. He keeps runnin' away evr'time I'm around him."

"Well, I have a plan that will make him come running back to you, Ma'am."

"Really? Lemme hear it!"

Giovanni had accomplished his mission. By loading Jezebel full of false hopes and lying to her with every word he said, he had persuaded her to do his work. James was in for a surprise!

"Alright, Ma'am, meet me down at the Team Rocket headquarters in Celadon City. Be quick about it! The plan must be carried out today!" The two ended the conversation and the next part of the plan was about to unfold.

As Jezebel made her way down, Giovanni ordered Butch back to the headquarters.

"Now, Butch, I have a top-secret plan that you must help carry through," he stared sternly at the blue-haired Rocket before him. Butch fidgeted nervously but knew that this was his ultimate chance to impress the Boss.

"Can I trust you, Butch?" the Boss questioned.

"Yes, sir," Butch replied proudly. At the signal of the Boss's finger to come nearer, he cautiously ventured towards the Boss's desk to hear about the top-secret operation he was to take part in.


	7. Despair

The Boss spoke firmly. "Butch, I want to rid Team Rocket of Jesse and James. First, however, I will get rid of James. You are going to assist me in doing so. Jezebel is to arrive here. You will have to do with much of the plot. At this moment, call a hairstylist."

As the cool fall breeze blew through the trees lining the highway, James stood happily shivering near the roadside. A car would have to come by, and when it did, he would get to leave this forest. Besides, Jesse probably already had left the forest and was getting a new assignment from the Boss. Why should he wait for someone that wasn't even coming?

Within an hour or so, finally a car came down the highway. A shiny red convertible sped towards where James was standing.

"Yay!" James screeched joyously. "I can finally be safe, away from everything!"

Waving his scraped-up arms victoriously in the air, he ran out onto the road, clomping his dirty boots on the concrete in the lane of the approaching car. Smiling from ear to ear, he made a stop signal with his hands so that the car would stop for him. Instead, though, the convertible swerved into the other lane to avoid James, then skidded past him. The hopeless, morose look on James's face was apparent as he watched his only chance of escape drive by.

In a few seconds, however, the car slammed to a halt a few hundred feet away. A twinkle came to James's eye as he excitedly jumped up, innocently thinking the driver was going to be kind and let him go with him. He swiftly made his way over to the car as the driver turned off the ignition and opened the car door.

As the man got up out of the car, James could see that the man was a member of Team Rocket, for he was wearing a black Team Rocket uniform with a bright red "R" across the chest. James waved warmly as he came closer to the car. The driver, leaning against the car with arms crossed, waited for James to approach.

When James had come within approximately fifty feet of the convertible, he could see that two other Rockets were in the car also. One was wearing the gray uniform that he had on, except the uniform was a female uniform. The person wearing the uniform was a woman with long, rose-colored hair. The man sitting beside her had short, chopped-off, blue hair and a black Team Rocket uniform. Curious, James stared at the two as he approached the car. After walking a few more feet, he could see that the man and the woman were kissing passionately and rapidly, running their hands all over each other.

"Whoa, those two are definitely in love," James thought as he came closer.

Soon James came close enough to see the color of the woman's eyes as she opened them between kisses. He stopped dead in his tracks. Panicky thoughts raced through his mind as his worst fear came true, revealed in her eye color.

"The woman's eyes are BLUE! Sapphire blue! Just like Jesse's! And the woman Rocket's uniform and hair! The exact same as Jesse's! Jesse's the one in the car! Jesse loves somebody else!"

The woman whispered sweet nothings into the man's ear as she stroked his chest. She completely ignored James, not even realizing his existance. This knocked James overboard. James looked away from the couple, beginning to sob.

Before his vision could become too blurry from the tears that welled up immediately after he saw the facts, James glanced back towards the pair and recognized the man with Jesse as Butch, his rival in Team Rocket, a person he knew and disliked, and who Jesse was kissing right now. The kiss that HE, James, had always wanted to receive.

"Jesse's in love with Butch!" his mind raced.

His heart pounded rapidly as it fell out of his body and broke into a million shards of pink flesh all over the road. Tears were now streaming down his face like a flash flood. He felt faint; he cried out in agony and ran back into the forest in a dizzy spell of disillusionment. Within seconds, James was sprawled out on the ground crying and wailing, going through the worst minutes of his life.

"Why? Why me?" he moaned. "The only person... I've ever loved... is in love with somebody... else... Somebody... I know! I always... woke up each day... imagining her and me together... at last... I always... thought... there was a... chance..."

He attempted to choke back the sobs as he spoke aloud of his despair.

"There's no... point in... living now..."

He lie on the ground for a few more seconds as he heard the convertible speed off. After sobbing for a few more seconds, he decided to take fate into his own hands...


	8. Is It Too Late?

James wept bitterly as he ran off to find a place to end his misery.

"Oh, I can't understand how she could just... abandon me like that," he mumbled sadly as he continued. "There's no... point to life now."

James ran, blinded by tears, across the road, through the pine tree forest on the other side of the road, through a shady glen, and finally he reached a rocky beach. He knew that this beach was near Olivine City, but he wasn't going to make it there. Carefully he ventured to the edge of the highest rocky cliff over the foaming ocean...

Meanwhile, Jesse continued her search for her partner. She had crossed the road about an hour ago and was now leaving a pine tree forest for a place she knew as Dark Leaf Glen, a safe little place that was inhabited by hundreds of Girafarig, Stantler, and Quagsire. However, the thought of catching these rare pokemon did not cross her mind at all. She was on a desperate search for James.

"Hey, Jess, why don't we take a little nap or sometin?" Meowth sleepily asked.

"We can't, Meowth. Don't you even care where James went?" she immediately slammed him with a mallet that came out of nowhere.

"I do care, Jess, I just don't tink we're gonna find James taday."

"If we look long enough we'll eventually find him."

The Boss was laughing the hardest he ever had laughed in his lifetime.

"Muahahaha, that James is doing exactly what I planned! He's going to kill himself!"

He had been laughing hysterically with Butch for the past half hour. He knew that James was going to jump off the cliff after hearing the updates on James's location from his pilot.

Meanwhile, Jezebel sat outside in the lobby, still wearing the Team Rocket uniform and Jesse's hairdo. After a half-hour of sitting and waiting for "the call" the Boss said she'd get from James, Jezebel soon realized how stupid she had been for going along with the plans. She slid off the cushioned seat, looked in the little slit of a window beside the Boss's office door and saw Giovanni and Butch cracking up. Immediately her curious expression turned to an angry one.

"Why, those little..." She pounded intently on the door, wanting to find out the information soon.

Butch walked over and opened the door, having listened to the Boss's command to do so. As she stepped into the office, Giovanni sat in his desk chair still chuckling, feet carelessly setting on the desktop next to his Persian. Jezebel was not afraid of this man. Let's face it, Jezebel was not afraid of any man. She stomped over hastily.

"Ah don't see what's so funny, Mista!" she said in her country drawl. "Now why don't ya'll tell me when I'm s'posed ta get this information 'bout mah James!"

Giovanni immediately thought up a lie. "My dear, James will call here. Since you now look exactly like his actual love, Jesse, and Jesse is now gone, he will think that you are Jesse."

"Well, explain ta me why ah jus made out with that there man in the car."

She pointed accusingly at Butch while still facing the giggling Boss. Jezebel was sly. She knew that something was up, and it was not what the Boss had just said.

"You see, James never had went after Jesse before, and now that she has shown that he could lose her, he may just begin to pursue her."

The Boss looked satisfied in his explanation, but soon realized that this girl here was a little bit more intelligent.  
Jezebel sneered at him.

"So ya'll are tellin' me that ah did all this for a maybe? Ah wanted him 100 guaranteed!"

Giovanni started to explain. "Well, you didn't ask what the chances were of it actually working..."

Jezebel crossed her arms in defiance. This time, however, Giovanni did not try to explain. He stood up quickly, his dark shadow extending across the slick white floor of the office.

"That will be all. Remove her from the premises." He signaled to Butch, and Butch immediately grabbed one of her arms.

"Hey, boy, ah am not movin' from here, ya see? Ah am stayin' an' waitin'."

Not hearing any new commands from the Boss, Butch continued to pull Jezebel out of the room and eventually got her completely out. She was becoming quite unmanageable, so he called to some other Rocket men to help her see her way out. It took three men holding her arms and leg to get her out of the building. The feisty young maiden got in every kick she could at the men, knowing which places would hurt the most.

Once Jezebel was dragged out of the Team Rocket Headquarters, Butch cornered her in the alley nearby. Seeing a beautiful, spunky young woman in front of him, one who had made out with him less than a day ago, he did what any sex-starved criminal would do: attempt to take off her clothes to get a good look at her, etc.

Just as he grabbed the first garment, Jezebel's Team Rocket jacket, she knew damn well what he was trying to do and kicked him square in the crotch. Her jacket was torn off, but the remainder of the clothes were there. As Butch doubled over, holding his tender self, Jezebel sprinted past him, kicking him one last time in the head, before she was completely out of sight. Butch groaned as pain shot up from the kicked spot all the way through his almost paralyzed body.

"Oooh, boy, was she a feisty one," he sighed. He leaned against a dumpster hunched over, until he was no longer numb. Once he was okay he rubbed his short blue hair and attempted to stand. He then stood fully and walked achingly back inside the HQ.

James stood silently staring over the cliff. After looking at the choppy black waves crashing with the tide and the jagged rocks along the shoreline, he became lightheaded and dropped to his knees. His eyes were still misty from the tears that he openly shed for the loss of his loved one.

"Doesn't she even realize that she is the only person keeping me here? I don't care about anybody else, let alone love them with all my heart like I love her. If she had passed away I don't think it could be as hard for me as this has been. Not only will I never be with her, but she'll be WITH SOMEONE ELSE!"

Before he could began pouring the tears all over again, he peered over the grassy clumps lining the edge of the drop-off.

"I guess this is just my fate; there's no way to escape it," he sadly remarked out loud.

Slowly he made his way to his feet, shakily standing up as he looked around him one last time. He saw the glen a short distance off from the beach, a stantler emerging from the brush... Well, in his tearfilled eyes it looked like a stantler... Slowly he extended his right foot out over the churning waters below... He looked down at the twisted roots of trees, ferns, and shrubs down below where he now stood, ribboning up the cliffside. One last tearful glance at the sky, and he fell to the depths hundreds of feet below.

Jesse had emerged from the glen to see James crying, standing on the edge of the cliff. Crying was sooo typical for him. But, wait, he was on the edge of a cliff! In a split-second, James had jumped off the cliff and was gone.

"JAMES!" she screamed desperately. With all her might, she sped over to the cliffside and screamed for her James. "JAMES! JAMES! WHY? PLEASE, JAMES, DON'T LEAVE ME!" she begged.

As James plummeted down the cliff he heard a voice, the voice of an angel, he thought. It sounded like his Jesse. Was heaven going to have her in it, with him? No, wait. He was going to go to hell for this. He was committing suicide at the moment. As the rocks came closer and closer he lifted his head to the top of the cliff. A red-haired woman stood on the cliffside, staring down at him while screaming down to him. He could recognize the words. And the voice. It was Jesse! Did she just say she needed him? Huh?

The recognition only took a second, but James had to do something quick. He was going to die in a few moments. Immediately he flailed his arms out, desperate to grab something solid, maybe one of the knarled tree roots. Was he going to grasp hold of something in time?


	9. The Rescue

As James vocally plummeted to his death, he flailed his arms madly about him. His fate would be sealed in a few seconds. First he panicked, then he tried to figure out a plan. There were roots running up the cliffside.

"Maybe I can latch myself onto one of them," he quickly planned.

Jesse saw that James didn't want to die now, but it was hopeless. He was already falling down the cliff! She covered her eyes and cried. Meowth, having been trailing Jesse's group by a few minutes, arrived to see her this way. He sped over to her and attempted to find out what was wrong, with Weezing, Arbok, and Victreebell following. In a moment or two, Jesse managed to choke out between sobs that James had jumped off the cliff.

One arm just happened to latch onto a protruding root, the root of a gigantic juniper shrub growing its way up the hill. His arm had broken the fall, but he now was hanging by the root, still above the jagged rocks with a newly broken arm and shoulder. Sighing deeply for relief that he had not met his fate only a few feet below, James hoisted his other arm up onto the root, thus taking the burden off the already broken bones in the arm that caught his fall. The sharp little spines running up and down the root had made a huge rip in his skin, with blood now oozing out all along his arms and down his already-filthy uniform. He examined his condition. His arm was broken in many more than two places, intense pain had caused that arm to go completely numb, and the same arm had a horrible group of bloody slices down it. It looked as if his arm had been twisted the wrong way then painted red.

Jesse didn't want to look. Although she didn't hear the plunging of the body into the water or the scream of terror as he hit the sharp rocks, she still assumed that James was dead. Meowth, however, was curious as a cat (well, he was a cat!) and ventured over to the cliff's edge. Peering down with his slitted eyes, Meowth did not see a dead body floating amidst the tide. He saw a struggling James trying to pull his bloody body up onto the steady roots of a large shrub entwined into the cliffside dirt. Immediately he shuddered and ran back to Jesse as fast as his feline legs could carry him.

"Jess!" he yelled excitedly. Jesse's doubled over crying body immediately shot up at the exclamation and she looked inquisitively towards the joyous pokemon.

"What-what is it, Meowth?" she demanded.

"It's James!" Meowth cheered. "He's alive!"

"What are you talking about? James fell to his death hundreds of feet off that cliff!"

"No, Jesse. I know what I'm seeing here. Come look." With a paw, he aided Jesse off the ground and walked her over to the cliff's edge. "Now, look down," he instructed.

Jesse peered nervously over the edge. She saw her partner hanging onto a root for dear life.

"WE HAVE TO HELP HIM!" she yelled. She called James's Victreebell over. "Victreebell, see your master down there holding onto the cliff side?" Victreebell nodded.

"Alright, Victreebell, pull him up with your vine whip!"

Within seconds, Victreebell flew its vines down to where James was struggling to hold on to the root with his good arm. His bad arm was beginning to turn bluish and he had become dizzy from all the loss of blood. Victreebell aimed true, but, unfortunately, his vines were not long enough to pull James back up. Jesse, glancing down to oversee Victreebell's work, saw that James had to only thrust himself up a few more feet and he'd be within Victreebell's reach. She shouted down to him.

"JAMES! DO YOU HEAR ME?"

The drowsy blue-haired man looked up at the embankment, hearing Jesse's worried voice. He saw how high up he had fell from and where his partner was standing as she yelled for him. Taking his attention off her for a few split seconds, James saw that his Victreebell had extended its thin green vines down to him. Only a few feet remained between him and the vines that would pull him back up. He nodded as vigorously as he could to Jesse to let her know that he could hear her. His voice was worn out and he was much too weary to try to shout to her.

Jesse interpreted James's nod as a "yes" and continued with instructions.

"JAMES, CAN YOU PULL YOURSELF UP A BIT FURTHER SO VICTREEBELL CAN HOIST YOU BACK UP?" Again, James nodded, this time more weakly.

Mustering all the strength that he could for the upcoming shoves, James managed to pull the right side of his body up onto the root he was holding onto. The vine was still too short. Beginning to feel panic rising in his throat, James scanned around for another root to pull him up nearer to the vine. He somehow managed to get all of his body onto the root as he reached for the next.

Jesse watched in anticipation as James slowly made his way up towards the top of the cliff. In the passing of a few seconds, she had completely chewed off all her nails, formerly manicured to perfection. Right now she did not care about perfection. She just wanted her James to be okay.

Swallowing a lump in his throat, James heaved his good arm, his left arm, over the next root. This root was a bit smaller than the previous one, but he prayed that it would hold for him. He struggled for a foothold, tearing the knees of his pants to shreds.

"Oh well," he murmured. "I'm already bad enough looking now. It's my fault anyway."

Flexing the muscles in his biceps, he yanked his torso onto the frail root. He was in reach of Victreebell now. The root made a breaking sound...

As Victreebell began to wrap its vines around James's blood-soaked waistline, the root gave way. James tumbled off of the ripped root, falling once again, this time face-first towards the water...

Fortunately, Victreebell had somewhat of a grip around his master's waist and snapped him back up towards the top of the cliff, using his vines as a slingshot. James flew straight up into the air, thoroughly stunned by the whiplash he was going through, courtesy of his pokemon's vines. Once James had reached the highest peak of his slinging and began to fall headfirst towards the water again, Victreebell dexterously thrust out his vines once again and grabbed James around his legs. The pokemon took the next motions slowly, gently lifting James up above the top of the cliff and setting him down as softly as possible on the grass.

Once James was placed on the ground, he immediately lost consciousness. The intense physical strains he had just experienced were too much to bear.

Jesse ran over to his seemingly lifeless body, seeing how bad of shape James was in. His arm was covered in half-dry, half-wet blood seeping from massive scratches and was obviously broken. His elbow was bent slightly backwards and his shoulder was easily recognized to be out of its socket, most likely also broken. The uniform he so proudly and handsomely wore was now a tattered, bloody, filthy mess upon his stark white body. When she put an ear next to his lips she could hear his shallow breathing. Meowth had ran off towards the road near where they were, searching for help.

Within a half-hour, James began to regain consciousness. His glorious jade eyes began to open as his breathing patterns became normal once again and his skin regained some color. Once his eyes had opened fully they focused on the surroundings, and much to his surprise he found he was lying in Jesse's lap, his hair being stroked lovingly by her. He assumed that he had probably died and somehow was accepted into heaven, for he "was in heaven" right now. Suddenly he remembered Jesse kissing Butch, having a great time with Butch, as she completely ignored him. Why was she here with him now, being wonderful towards him and caring for him, when so shortly before she had forgotten him?

"H-how... did I get here?" he murmured weakly. It was all he could say to get an explanation of what had all happened.

"James, you're finally awake..." Jesse said, her voice cracking from the quiet excitement she felt. She wanted to jump up and shout joyfully at the top of her lungs, but she couldn't scare him back into the world of unconsciousness. "You don't know how worried I was that you weren't going to make it..."

James was confused. "Why were you worried about me?" he said softly, so as not to enrage her again.

"Because I care about you," was the simple reply. Oh, how Jesse wanted to just say the words, the words that she had kept hidden in her heart for so long. She was afraid. Afraid to open up any spots of vulnerability. She began to feel a deep sadness in her heart.

"Now let me ask you a question, James. Why did you try to commit suicide?" As she said this, the words shocked her and made her eyes well up with tears.

James looked into her quivering eyes for the appropriate response. She was oblivious to what she had done to him. How so? It was she that drove him to want to die! Cautiously he ventured, "Jesse, you know why..."

Jesse immediately referred back to her yelling at him and making upsetting remarks. She never thought that it would affect him so intensely.

A tear fell from her eye as she replied to his last remark. "I'm sorry, James, let's just put that behind us. I'll try not to do it again, it just happens sometimes, definitely way too often..."

She did not know that James was talking about something else. He was referring to the kissing that "she" and Butch did in the car as he approached. Her response was not what he wanted to hear, in association with the kissing.

James processed the information in the worst way possible.

"Her eyes look sincere in what she is saying, but she JUST wants to put that kissing thing behind us? She's going to TRY not to do it again? How often DOES she do it anyway with him? Obviously it must be more than I saw today." His mind raced with more suicidal churning. "Not only did Jesse kiss Butch that one time, but she did it LOTS of times! When did she find the time? Jesse was always around me, but apparently not as ALWAYS as I thought."

Jesse did not know what was going on inside James's mind at the moment, but saw a tear forming in the corner of his eye so she assumed that he understood. He was acting so oddly though. Comfortingly, she nestled his head in her arms as she attempted to calm him down with a rocking motion. As James thought silently, Jesse put Weezing and Victreebell back in their pokeballs and put them back on his belt loop. Suddenly, James jolted up out of her grasp, scaring her to the point where she jumped back a little. The tear that began to form in his eye came streaming down his dirty face, along with many more. As he cried the tears of frustration and anger, he yelled at the woman sitting frightened on the ground in front of him.

"I... JUST DIDN'T... THINK... THAT YOU... WOULD DO THAT... TO ME... TO US!" Jesse could see that he was overly upset, for he could barely choke his words out between sobs.

"What was all this about the 'us'?" she thought. "I don't think the fighting had to do that much with 'us'."

James then turned around and stomped off back into the glen. Jesse was left sitting on the ground, utterly confused. She began to cry again; now James was REALLY angry. She had to follow him.


	10. Jezebel Returns....

Jesse ran along the path which she thought James had taken, since all the weeds and branches were newly snapped. She didn't understand why James took her excuse so badly. Besides, she really did feel horrible for yelling at him and depressing him.

"I thought I was being nice to him," she said aloud to herself. "Humph... I wonder where Meowth is..."

James ran, disgusted with everything, until he reached the Fog Forest again and took a little break, sitting down on a fungi-covered log. He soon heard something quickly approaching where he was sitting, and stood up to defend himself. The figure ran towards him, kicking up dust in all directions, making it impossible for him to see who or what it was.

"Jesse?" he murmured to himself, disbelieving. He didn't think that Jesse could've possibly caught up to him that quickly. The figure came very close, until it was upon him. Of course, with the dust all about, James could not tell where the actual being kicking up the dust was.

The running thing ran right into him! It knocked him off his feet and, in his fall, he hit his head against a tree trunk and lost consciousness.

When the dust cleared, the redheaded woman stood above her victim.

"Ah guess Giovanni didn't lie afta all," she cackled in her strong Southern accent.

Jezebel was still wearing the Team Rocket uniform (minus her jacket) and still resembled Jesse.

"All Ah gotta do is drag him to the road where we can get a ride back to the house." She smiled as she began to tug his arm towards where she knew the road was. Once she had gotten his lifeless body dragged over a few stumps and rocks, it was no problem pulling him across the slippery clovers and ferns covering the forest floor.

Jesse continued through the forest until she reached a skid mark along the ground where all the weeds had been smashed and it seemed as if something had been dragged. She followed the skid mark, worried that maybe her James had been kidnapped and dragged along this path. As she continued walking along where the path took her, a pokemon fell out of the trees and landed on her head. The pokemon's claws dug into her thick ruddy hair, piercing her scalp, as it attempted to grasp onto her head. She shrieked loudly and grabbed the thing, flinging it a few yards away from her. As it flew through the sky, it shouted out a complaint in broken English. Jesse immediately knew who it was.

"Meowth!" she screamed angrily at the feline. "Why did you do that to me? You scared me to death!"

"I'm sorry, Jess, I jus tot Jezebel came back wit James for some reason, and I wanted ta scare her away."

"What are you talking about?" the enraged woman demanded.

"Oh," Meowth sighed, seeming to hide a secret that Jesse didn't know. "I didn't tell ya, did I? I's been sittin' here all day and tot I saw you drag James by. Of course, when I went ta catch up wit ya two, I found dat it was Jezebel, and she took off her boot, shoved me inta it, face first, and threw me up inta a tree."

"How could you possibly have thought that SHE was me?"

"She was wearin' a Team Rocket uniform exactly like yours, and ya hafta admit, she does look like ya. I coulda swore it was you, but afta she talked, I knew that she wasn't you!"

Jesse's anger toward Meowth subsided, and instead a look of puzzlement came over her face. As she pondered about why Jezebel would be wearing a Team Rocket uniform, she spoke her thoughts aloud.

"Now, why would Jezebel be wearing a Team Rocket uniform? And how did she know where James was?"

Meowth, thinking that she was talking to him, attempted to answer. "Well, I'm not exactl---" He was cut off by the thud of Jesse's boot on his head. "Owww!" he yowled. "I's jus tryin' ta help..."

"I don't need your help, you rotten furball!" Jesse screeched. Meowth cowered again, but got a better idea, and cautiously tried to tell Jesse.

"Uh, Jesse..."

Jesse, still deep in her thoughts, glared over at him with a look that could kill.

"Maybe we should---" He recoiled a bit, expecting her fist to come slamming down between his ears. It was now hovering above his head, ready for the next word to come out of his mouth. Jesse wasn't going to put up with his yapping this time, that was for sure... But he wasn't just yapping this time. He moved out of hitting distance to tell her.

"Jess, dey passed by here about ten minutes ago... If we hurry we could catch up wit em!"

Jesse's look of rage turned into a frantic one. "Yes, we'd better help him before it's too late!"


	11. Trickery

James's eyes fluttered awake as he felt the sensation of being slid across the ground. He was being slid along by someone holding his shoulders, dragging him towards the roadside, about fifty yards away. He saw a lush canopy of sycamore and maple from his skyward viewpoint, and realized that he was still in the forest. Suddenly, he shook off the person holding him and felt his head hit the ground, no longer being supported by the mystery person. He attempted to lift up his upper body, but heard the dragger coming about into his field of vision. It was Jesse! He immediately sat up and wrapped his arms about her ankles.

He gazed up into her crystalline blue eyes and stated meekly, "How did you catch up to me so quickly? You must really care about me!"

He smiled boyishly as he blushed a bright red. Jezebel, still in perfect disguise, smiled back and squatted down to hug him, since he was so overjoyed to see "her." She knew that right when she talked, James would know who it was, so she mustn't speak until she had him in the car or back at the house. This was probably the only time that James would ever want her. Well, he wasn't even wanting her, he was wanting Jesse, but anything was okay with her, as long as she could spend a few sweet moments with him. Still yielding a wide smile across her face, she hugged James and, deciding to get as much out of him as she could during this time of disguise, she kissed him passionately, making him fall back dizzily into the grass.

"Wow, Jesse, I never knew---" His excited chatter was cut off by another kiss from her. Jezebel jumped on top of him and began kissing along his neck, seemingly attempting to make contact with as much exposed skin as she could. Just then James's mojo kicked in and he began kissing her in as many places on her upper body as possible, wrapping his arms around her back and flipping the order around so that he was on top of her.

"Thank you, Jesse," he shyly told the smiling woman beneath him. "You don't know how long I've been dreaming of this."

As Jezebel attempted to remove his shirt, she couldn't help but let a giggle escape. James immediately stopped what he was doing and looked at this woman who he had thought was Jesse. With a confounded look on his face, he questioned the lookalike underneath him. "Jesse?"

Jezebel just smiled seductively and slapped James across the face, for she knew that hitting James was Jesse's habit. James still wasn't sure about who it was and began to stand up.

As he stood up, towering over Jezebel's body, Jezebel thought up an evil idea. Swiftly she kicked James in the groin, figuring that he wouldn't be able to move after that. Besides, she knew that he would've figured out that she was Jezebel and not Jesse in a few seconds anyway.

James immediately doubled over and collapsed on the grass next to her, moaning in utter pain. The sting shot up through his body, paralyzing him to lie on the ground in a ball.

Jezebel took advantage of the situation, stood up quickly, and jogged over to a vine-covered tree. Then, she pulled off a medium-sized monkey vine and ripped it away from the tree. She came back to her victim and, as he lay there in terrible agony, not able to move his hands away from the kicked area, she firmly tied his feet together with the vines, doubling them over to make sure of tightness and durability.

Afterwards, she pulled on the root of another vine so she could break it off to a convenient size to tie his hands together. Successful, she ran back to James, finally beginning to regain movement, and tied him up before he could resist powerfully.

"I hate you, Jezebel!" he yelled at her over and over. In this time James also managed to get out many a call for help, but Jezebel realized that Jesse could track him down much quicker this way, so she abruptly shoved a handful of pebbles into his unsuspecting mouth. After swallowing a few crunchy distasteful rocks, James decided not to yell any more. So, in a few moments Jezebel was back to dragging him, this time by his tied-up feet, toward the ever-nearing roadside.

Jesse spotted a red flash of color as she raced through the forest to catch up with Jezebel and James.

"I think I see them, Meowth!" she exclaimed triumphantly. She began to pick up the pace, running even faster than before. Of course, at this speed, she did not see the hole that she and James had placed so cleverly in this forest so the twerp gang could fall in. She fell into the hole head-first, screaming as she fell the six feet down. 

Jezebel had finally reached the roadside. She immediately pulled off her Jesse wig and unveiled a cell phone hidden within her red locks. James, sitting up halfway, fell over anime-style when he saw her taking the phone out of her hair. Jezebel viewed his reaction and began her explanation.

"Well, ahm rich, ain't ah? All rich folks carry around cell phones!"

She pressed a few buttons on the small purple phone and waited a few seconds as the other side rung. After about three rings, the limousine company answered the phone. She began to speak with the desk man.

"Hello... This is Jezebel... Yes... Well, ahm sorry ah had ta call like this, but ahm stuck by the roadside near Fog Forest! Could ya'll send a limo out ta pick me up? ... Thank ya, mister! See ya soon!"

After a quick conversation, Jezebel swung her coiled coiffure round as she hung up, folded up, and placed the phone back in her hair. Giggling convulsively, she knew that she had won.

"Ha! Well, that's all done, James, my sweet! Ya'll are comin' home with Jezebel!"

Turning to focus her gaze on her catch, she saw that James had spit out all of the rocks in his mouth and was now coughing up all the dirty tasting saliva he now had in his mouth.

"James! What on earth are you doin'?" she scolded him. Grinning slyly, she trod on over to where he was struggling with the dirt in his mouth and the vines tying his feet and hands together.

"You betta stop that, James, or you'll get a spankin' when we get home!" James only cringed and tried harder in his attempt to escape. "Well, James, the spankin' is set!"

After pulling herself out of the mud-filled hole and making her way towards the road once again, Jesse, along with Meowth, finally emerged from the brush dotting the roadsides to see Jezebel standing above a tied-up James, about forty yards away.

"JAMES!" she yelled towards him. James heard her voice and yelled back over to her.

"HELP ME, JESSE!"

"I'M COMING!"

Jesse raced closer and closer to where he and Jezebel were, but just as she came within leaping distance, a limousine pulled up and stopped beside them. As fast as lightning, the limo driver jumped out of his seat, abruptly snatched up James and Jezebel, tossed them into the limo, shut the door, and hopped back into his seat to pull back onto the road. Jesse stopped in front of the tinted windows where James was trapped inside the car. In a last ditch effort to communicate, James rolled down the window a tad and shouted out to Jesse one last time.

"She's taking me to the estate!"

The limousine drove off as fast as it had came, disappearing over a hill and completely going out of all ranges of all senses.

Jesse stomped angrily on the ground as Meowth finally caught up to her, panting.

"That horrid bitch, Jezebel, took James back to the estate!" she growled. "How are we going to get there?"

"Try hitchhiking, Jesse; it always woiks. Stick ya thumb out inta traffic. A goyal as pretty as you's gotta be picked up quickly."

Jesse did as instructed and, soon enough, the next passerby offered to give her a ride in his truck. He was a bearded mountain man with a large belly, an unkempt fellow somewhat resembling a woodlands hermit. His clothes were filthy, his pickup was rusty, but it was a ride that she would have to accept if she wanted to save her James before Jezebel got her paws on him.

Crawling into the passenger-side seat, Jesse put on her sweetest expression as she asked the scruffy man if she could bring along her meowth. Of course, the man had to oblige. Once seated and back on the road, Jesse directed the man to head off to where James's estate lay waiting.


	12. That Sinking Feeling....

James sat glumly in the back of the dark limousine, trying to yank the restraints off of his hands. Jezebel had cleverly tied his wrist vines onto a hook on the wall in front of them, making sure that James would not be able to use his hands to do anything, let alone defend himself against her. As he struggled in vain to yank his wrists off the hook, Jezebel forced a harsh kiss onto his cheek. Even though he was tied up, he used all his strength (and head turning) to avoid a kiss on the lips. Between Jezebel's bothering him, James had some time to think about all that had happened.

"She tricked me into thinking that she was Jesse. She was wearing Jesse's clothes. I had seen Jesse making out with Butch in the back of that convertible, but was it actually Jesse? I think that it was Jezebel that was in the car with Butch. But why would she have done that?"

James was utterly confused, and Jezebel could see that he had been deep in thought.

"What's on ya mahnd, sweetie?"

Jezebel didn't expect a reply, but she didn't expect what James was going to do instead of it, either. With his mouth still partly full of dirt, James spit all over Jezebel's face….

The air grew deathly still as Jezebel glared at James, shocked at his reaction. James's sneer changed into the face of a child in trouble as Jezebel stared at him. After about a minute of utter silence (which seemed like hours to James), Jezebel angrily wiped off her face with one hand, and used the other hand to lay the hardest smack that she could ever conjure onto James's cheek. A red hand mark soon appeared where she had hit him.

James jerked his head to one side, feeling the intense stinging on his face and not even being able to rub the painful spot. His eyes began to water as he thought of the horrible fate that awaited him for what he had just done. He suspected that Jezebel had had her fill of punishing him for now, but he was wrong. The fierce woman next to him grabbed him by the neck and twisted his head so that he was facing her. She took her sharp nails and dragged them along the front of his neck until blood flowed. James writhed in pain as he shrieked aloud at the horrible pain he was in at the moment. He face was stinging and his neck was bleeding. He wanted so desperately to escape that he could taste it over the scent of dirt in his mouth.

Meanwhile, Jesse directed the mountain man to where she was to be headed. For some odd reason, Jesse noticed that this guy, who addressed himself as Bob, was chugging his truck along at a very slow pace. After two hours of driving, and getting no sleep these past few nights, Jesse fell asleep. Meowth could not help but curl up and fall asleep on her lap.  
The driver of the truck could see that the two were sleeping, but had to make sure. He waved his hands over their faces, and when there was no response, he then pulled out a radio transmitter connected to the underside of the truck's console. In a very low tone, he whispered into the device.

"Headquarters, calling for the Boss, over."

Soon an ominous deep-throated voice spoke into the other end of the transmitter. "Yes, this is Giovanni at Headquarters, over."

"I got Jesse from Team Rocket in my truck. She's sleeping right now, so I gotta keep this quiet. How do you want me to dispose of her, Boss? Over."

Giovanni looked inquisitively at the map of Pokeland in front of him. "Where is your position, over."

"I'm on the only road running beside Fog Forest, over." The Boss had been watching that road and pointed his finger on the spot.

"Oh, I see." the Boss murmured. "Have you went past a large body of water yet? Over."

"Uh, no, Boss. Why? Over."

"Soon you will be coming to a lake to your left. Are your truck's windows rolled up? Over."

"Yeah, Boss. They are…. Oh, and another thing, I have power windows in this truck, believe it or not, so I can set it so that only the driver of the vehicle can mess with the windows. Over."

"Set it to do that… Once you get to the lake, swerve your truck as easily as possible so as not to awake the passengers, and drive right into the lake. Over."

"Well, how am I supposed to escape? Over." Bob became a bit frightened at the Boss's proposal. He didn't want to die like this.

"You aren't supposed to escape. Over." The Boss's cold words hit the truck driver like a brick on the head.

The Team Rocket henchman's voice was quivering with fear.

"Isn't there another way I can kill her so that I can live? Over."

The Boss suspected that this man was breaking his trust.

"I do not trust you with the task you are supposed to be doing. You must die. I cannot have this leaking out to others. And, if you try to escape, you will experience a fate worse than death. Over and out."

The truck driver attempted over and over again to get to reason with the Boss, frantically whispering into the transmitter as he glanced over at the still sleeping pair. Nothing happened. He decided then to drive his truck into the water, but jump out before he could drown. Jesse and Meowth would be deceased, but he could make a run for it. 

Soon the man spotted the lake up ahead, a muddy pit most likely full of water snakes. Of course, that was not his big bother. He had to make a decision quickly. As the truck drove along so slowly that it was almost stopped, Bob opened the latch to his rusty door, making sure that he would be able to get out, and removed his seat belt for faster escape. Gently he steered the wheels in the direction of the lake, palms sweating and heart beating against his ribs. This just had to work. No cars were coming. He felt a bit guilty. It was only a few minutes until sunset, and the woman beside him was beautiful. The woman that was going to suffocate in the murky depths of the lake ahead.

Bob held his hands tightly onto the steering wheel as his vehicle entered the other traffic lane, preparing to drive into the lake. As the front wheels left the pavement of the road, he prepared for the plunge. It had to be a good plunge or else the truck wouldn't get far enough out onto the lake to sink, and drown its victims. He pushed the accelerator down to the floor as the truck's tires left the ground and the vehicle landed in the muddy sludge-filled water about fifteen feet off the roadside. Immediately the driver pushed the unlatched door open and squeezed himself out. The truck sank quickly as he distanced himself away from it. He attempted to close the open driver's door but the thick muck filled the inside of the truck and would not allow any more solid inside. A car passed and he assumed it was a Team Rocket vehicle to check out his progress, so he dove down into the mud, waiting for it to pass, to assume that he was dead. Within a few seconds, he surfaced and began to trudge away from the truck, not even looking back.

Jesse stirred awake, feeling an oozing of mud over her thighs. She opened her eyes slowly, afraid of what she might see. When she did see that her legs were completely covered with sludge she cried out.

"AAAAck!" she wailed.

Meowth awoke quickly to the scream of his partner. He had been sleeping on the dashboard, but saw the abruptly rising murk and looked out the front window at the surroundings.

"Jesse! We's been driven inta ah lake!"

Instead of her usual response of hitting the loud cat, Jesse heeded his words and looked for herself. Indeed they were in a lake. She immediately squirmed and wriggled around, searching for an escape route. In a frenzy, she attempted to open her window, but it was a power window and it must have been set so that she couldn't use it.

"Oh, what rotten luck! The only automobile that happens to pass by is one that wrecks!" she moaned to Meowth.

Meowth then pointed out that the driver's side door was opened halfway. Avoiding another shriek, Jesse held her breath as she attempted to crawl across the seat to get to the door. She felt the truck sink another foot into the mud. The sludge now came up to her waist. After asking for permission, Meowth crawled onto her back and held on to her collar so that he could get out along with her. The truck had sunk into the mud until the glop of the lake was just under the steering wheel. Covered with slimy filth, Jesse reached the other side of the vehicle and tried to push open the door so that her body could fit through. It wouldn't budge.


	13. The Beginning Of The End

Jesse began to panic. Her only chance to live might be an impossible chance. With Meowth clawing at the door furiously, attempting to scrape off the drying mud caking the door cracks, Jesse shoved and kicked the door with all her might. As the truck sank deeper and deeper, Jesse used her last bits of strength to get the rusty, mud-swallowed door opened.  
Finally the truck door's hinges broke with a mighty crack and the door toppled off into the mud and sank as quickly as it had landed. With a gigantic sigh of relief, Jesse jumped out of the truck as far away from it as she could muster, with Meowth hanging onto her by her long red strands. The pair plodded through the mud and reached the grass by the roadside within minutes. Exhausted, they fell on the ground in a heap. Panting, Jesse spoke to her little buddy next to her.

"Oh, thank goodness, Meowth! We made it!"

"Ya, we lived, Jess! I dunno if anyone else coulda done what we jus done."

After another hour of driving, Jezebel and James reached the estate. The intelligent woman realized that if James's parents saw her wearing the Team Rocket costume, they'd probably think that she was Jesse and throw her out without question. In front of James, Jezebel took off the Team Rocket skirt to reveal a small checkered miniskirt she had on underneath. The plain black Team Rocket shirt and black and white skirt would do fine for now. All the while James glared at her, angry enough to taste the revenge that he so desired.

Snickering evilly, the redhead woman opened the window between the back of the limo and the driver, handed a fifty-dollar bill to the limo driver, and spoke to him in hushed tones, most likely wanting him to do some extra service. James pondered about whatever she could have done that for, but he soon found out.

"Yay, James, we'a at the house!"

She put her arms around his waist and squeezed him tightly. As James tried to shake away, she let go and watched the limousine driver come over and open her door for her. Before she got out of the limousine, though, she had to say something else to annoy James even further.

"Now, don't ya'll try an' escape on me, eitha!"

The driver then hastily shut Jezebel's door and walked around to the other side of the vehicle. Slowly he opened James's door as James tried to kick his hand.

"LET ME OUT OF HERE!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "This is illegal, kidnapping me like this!"

He squirmed again, kicking his legs out towards the open door. Suddenly, the limousine driver leaned into the vehicle and held his shoulders back towards the back of the seat. While he was doing this, Jezebel crawled in and undid one of the vines twisted around a wrist. She then took the tied hand, shoved the vine under his belt, and pulled it through to his other flailing arm. Giggling, she retied the other wrist. Now James wouldn't be able to use his arms at all.

Humming a happy tune, Jezebel stepped out of the vehicle as the short stout limousine driver yanked James by the back of his shirt out of the vehicle onto the concrete of the estate driveway.

"Oww! That hurt!" the purple-haired man complained. He stumbled awkwardly on the solid ground, trying desperately to jerk away from the man holding him.

Jezebel gestured to the man.

"Now, bring'm inta the estate! I'll op'n the door for ya'll ta get through as simply as possible!"

The young woman whirled around and ran towards the main estate doors, her checkered skirt blowing in the breeze. James tried his hardest to pull away from his restraint, but just couldn't do it. He was forced into the estate and down the steep narrow stairs to the dungeon, the place he hated the most in the world.

Meanwhile, Jesse sat up near the roadside, panting heavily, still attempting to catch her breath.

"Meowth," she panted, "how are we going to get to James's estate in time? Jezebel has him in a tight hold for their wedding plan."

"Well, maybe stick ya thumb out again. Maybe we can get anotha hitchhike."

"The last person wrecked, though, Meowth."

The pair watched the truck sink deeper and deeper into the mud, until they heard an odd sound. The sound of a person talking. It was fuzzy reception, but as Jesse listened intently for it, she could swear that it was some walkie-talkie or such. They continued hearing the sound, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from, until they finally realized it.

"Da truck's makin' da noise, Jesse. Dere mus' be some kinda transmitta in da vehicle," Meowth stated with a hint of curiosity in his voice.

He crept out onto a fallen log setting atop the mud. It led nearer to the truck than where he was sitting before. "I'll tell ya what it says, Jesse. I can hear it betta over here."

The catlike pokemon reached the end of the log and balanced himself on it so as not to have the log tilt under the more weight on one side. He listened for the sound.

"Is …. nyone there? This... the Boss... Ov…" The voice automatically registered in Meowth's mind as the Boss of Team Rocket! There was a small pause.

"I will send…. down to check…. the mission to kill Jesse…. completed…. ver…."

Within seconds Meowth was back at Jesse's side, telling her about the scheme to kill her. Jesse was shocked.

"You mean…. the Boss is trying to kill me?" She held her hand up to strike him. "Don't lie to me, Meowth."

"Yes, Jesse! Da wreck inta da lake musta just been a plot ta kill us."

"But, why would he want to kill me?"

The two sat in silence, with only the faint sound of the transmitter buzzing, and contemplated the question. Jesse was dumbfounded about this whole thing. Why would the Boss want to kill her, anyway? She was the only member of this 3-member Rocket group that actually went through with plans. Maybe they had failed with trying to capture Pikachu, but oh well. It was only one pokemon. She really wanted Meowth to be wrong about the whole killing plan, but by the time she thought to perhaps crawl out to the truck to hear again for the transmitter, the whole truck was engulfed in mud and was out of sight and sound. Even the transmitter buzzes and fuzzes weren't heard anymore.

She hadn't seen any sign of the driver since she had woken up and wondered where the jerk could be. The driver had been gone for more than an hour; he had escaped the lake while the truck was sinking with Jesse and Meowth inside. Jesse suddenly shot up from her low seated position.

"Meowth! Maybe Giovanni got Jezebel to work for him to kill James as the truck driver was trying to kill me! OH, NOO!" The usually emotionless woman crumpled down onto the road, sobbing. Meowth tried to comfort her as he pulled her limp body off the dangerous pathway.

As he tugged with all his might, Meowth noticed something about Jesse that he knew he would see one day in full view. Jesse was in despair over James, when usually all the emotion she ever showed towards the man was anger.

He thought to himself, "Man, I hope dose kids get taggeda soon. Dey were always meant for each utha." He listened to Jesse's continuous sobs. "James really cares 'bout Jess, he stares at her ev'ry night, an' Jess always cries ev'ry mornin' 'fore he wakes up in regret for her horrid treatment of him. Maybe soon dey'll catch each utha cryin' o'er each utha. Of course, James has gotsa be saved foyst."

He successfully pulled the pitiful figure of Jesse off the road and stuck his thumb out for a hitchhike.

After about a half-hour a small red station wagon pulled over. There were three kids sitting in the back of the vehicle. One had a ball cap pulled over a mass of thick black hair, one had squinty eyes and black hair, and one, the girl between the two boys, had choppy red hair put into a messy pony tail. But before he could scream out in recognition, the boy in the ball cap had to.

"It's Team Rocket!" Ash exclaimed.

Meowth gaped in a flood of sheer bad luck. There were the twerps in the back seat. And, sitting up front next to Ash's mother, the driver of the vehicle, was a being that he was both petrified of and jealous of. A being that could kill him before he could even ask a question to the twerp gang in the back of the car.


	14. A Light

Meowth had to set the point straight. He looked at the extraordinarily powerful creature in the front seat and began to stutter his reason for being there. The creature, Pikachu, did not stir; he just sought to hear the excuse.

"Me an' Jess here don't wanna do anyting wrong ta yous guys. Team Rocket's tryin' ta kill us! Dat's why we's all muddy; we was almos' drown'd in da lake. Please, please, could ya give us a ride? We gotta save James!"

Jesse saw that Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu were not convinced by Meowth's speech. She spoke up with the most pitiful tone she could muster.

"Please…. Jezebel is going to kill James. You have to help us save him…. We don't want to hurt you."

Ash crossed his arms. "This is just a plot to catch Pikachu, isn't it?"

"No!" Jesse corrected. "We don't want to catch your pokemon. We really, truly, honestly need your help." She thought to herself as she spoke. "Why does Ash always think that his pikachu is the best pokemon in the world? He acts as if everyone wants the little rat."

Ash's mother leaned back towards where Brock was sitting and whispered to him. Brock, quite stupid with his response, loudly answered her question.

"Yes, it's the infamous Team Rocket, Ms. Ketchum."

Immediately Ash's mother slammed the accelerator down on the car, almost knocking Jesse and Meowth over as it zoomed away. The two Rocket's shoulders immediately drooped as their spirits sunk to an all-time low. They watched the car drive away. The vehicle sped quickly a few hundred yards, then the car stopped dead in its tracks, making a loud skidding sound. Jesse and Meowth looked at each other and smiled, very surprised, for they did not expect Ash and his friends to ever forgive them, let alone help them. The car backed up slowly towards the beat up, muddy remnants of Team Rocket. Ash rolled down the window and smiled slyly at Jesse and Meowth.

"Yeah, we'll help you, but only if you promise never to try to catch Pikachu again."

Jesse looked slightly agitated by his request, then put on a self-pitying look and gave him a reply.

"Okay. We'll agree to the terms."

After she had agreed to the permanent treaty, Ash's mother pressed a button that released the trunk. The station wagon's trunk was small, but it was in the same part of the car as the other passengers and they could see out the back window. She and Meowth, aside from being squished, would get plenty of air, at least. They climbed into the back, Jesse stretching herself out in the width of the car. Meowth sat on her knees and both prepared for their uncomfortable trip. Brock climbed out of the car, shut the latch on the trunk, and jumped back in, and all were on the go once again.  
Misty turned around from her seat and tried to put on her nicest look as she asked Jesse where the two were to go.  
Jesse squirmed to sit up slightly and knocked off some mud chips as she answered.

"James's estate, by the Lake of Rage."

"Wow," the redhead replied. "We have quite a way to go. Are you going to pay for the gas?"

A slap from Brock shut the girl up. "Misty," the gym leader coaxed, "give Team Rocket a break. They sound like they are telling the truth."

"For once," Misty angrily spat.

Jesse mumbled angrily under her breath as she glared at the back of Misty's head. She beckoned for Meowth to crawl nearer to her face so she could tell him something.

"Hey, Meowth," she whispered in a sneaky tone. "We didn't agree to a treaty with Misty…. Hehehe…" The two exchanged muffled laughter as the kids sitting in front of them turned around.

"What are you two laughing about?" Ash asked. Jesse didn't like his "superior" tone of voice, and hastened a reply.

"None of -I mean, nothing important." She smiled sheepishly at the 12-year-old. It was nice that the little brat was giving her and Meowth a ride, but acting superior to her was not acceptable. She sneered as she calmed down a bit. Of course, nothing could keep the worried expression off her face. It soon surfaced and remained on her face for the remainder of the trip.

James was dragged into the main room of the house where the limousine driver prepared to release his hold on him. Jezebel turned around hastily and signaled "stop" to him. She giggled lightly as she approached him.

"Listen, mister, if ya'll bring James down ta the downstairs room, I'll pay ya lots extra."

The driver nodded and continued his firm hold on James as Jezebel turned around to lead James down to the dungeon. The stairs were dark and treacherous, but the limousine driver was steady and somehow managed to lead James down them without a fall or escape.

The dungeon doors opened with a great creak as the three entered the large room. Jezebel pulled out six hundred-dollar bills as she pulled a lever that re-shut the huge doors that they had came through. Once the doors were shut, the anxious woman nodded for the man to release James, and he did so. Instead of James running as far away from Jezebel as he could in the room, the exhausted man fell face down on the ground. He had lost a lot of blood, his arm and shoulder were broken in countless places, and he was just a total dirty bloody torn-up mess.

Jezebel looked slightly shocked for a few seconds, but the expression was soon replaced by a sly smile. She confidently handed the money to the driver, who then nodded happily and walked out the only unlocked door Jezebel had instructed him to leave through. Once he had left, Jezebel locked the door and walked back to the heap of James on the ground. New blood from James's bound-up hands was seeping all over the cement as he lay partially unconscious. She cautiously made her way towards the man on the floor and glared sternly at the back of his blood-stained head.

"James, get up!" She kicked him indignantly.

"Get up, Ah say!" She yelled again.

With no response to any of her yelling or kicking, Jezebel saw that something was wrong. She knelt down next to James and touched his hair gingerly, seeing that it was covered in caked blood. Her boot heels stepped in a slippery substance that she soon realized was also his blood, but was newly pouring out. She carelessly heaved him over onto his back and saw that his knuckles and hands were bleeding, and his shirt sleeve had been ripped up, as was also the skin underneath. His clothes were in tatters and covered with dirt, etc.

"Well, James, it appears as if ya'll need a bath. Your parents are not gonna see you in this condition. Damn it, we're a-gonna hafta wait for the weddin'."

She spoke as if he was able to understand her in his state of new unconsciousness. She peered at his arm, awkwardly bent and crooked unlike any normal person's range of movement.

"Awww, damn it again, James! Your arm is broken too! Ugh!"

With a look of pure disgust, she stormed off angrily to the bathroom to wash off her hands under the clean water. James regained consciousness as Jezebel stomped back into the center of the dungeon where he lie still on his back. She had a wet washcloth, bucket of water, and bar of soap with her. Slowly she knelt down in her miniskirt and prepared to wipe all the gross blood off. James began to try to sit up as she held the large washcloth over his head. She smiled at him coyly.

"Jesse?" he guessed. His face had a tint of hope. "Oh, never mind," he scoffed, "it's just you."

He tried to turn his face away from the dripping rag but Jezebel practically tried to suffocate him with it. James coughed and attempted to writhe away from her, but his hands were tied so it was impossible for him to get up. The suffocating torture didn't last long. Within a few seconds Jezebel stopped, sat up, and smiled, like she had had a bright idea. Suddenly she wrenched his arm up as she tried to pull him to a stand.

"OWWWW!" James screamed louder than he ever had screamed before.

Jezebel was stopped in the midst of her action by the scream. She gave him an embarrassed look.

"Oh, sorry, hehe…" she chuckled nervously. "That's yer broken arm."

"Yes, as a matter of fact, it is. You blind or something?" he squirmed uncomfortably as he brought himself to a seated position. As he glared at Jezebel, he attempted to rip his tied-up hands apart.

His attempt at escape was answered with a punch in the face, knocking him back over.

"What'd you do that for?" he questioned angrily.

"Ya'll are not gonna start smartin' off ta Jezebel now. You are gonna listen ta me an' take a bath."

"No! I will not!"

Jezebel could not take the defiance. She could not allow him to sit in the middle of the dungeon for much longer. His parents would be down soon, she was sure, and would not accept him looking the way he did at the moment. A bloody, battered gentlemen would be a horrible sight for his parents to see. She had to get him into the bathroom.

"I'll be right back, darlin'," she said as she walked away from him. James watched with terror in his eyes as she pulled a whip out of the box. Smiling evilly, the sinister woman strolled towards him with fire in her gaze and a weapon in her clutch.

"Now, James. Are ya'll gonna listen to Jezebel are do ya'll wanta beatin' like Ah promised you in the limo?"

James was defeated. He probably would not live through the beating. He sat back up as demurely as possible, so as not to make Jezebel think that he was revolting against her. As he sat there with no response from Jezebel, he thought for sure that there would be a beating. To make sure that there was no misunderstanding, James turned a bit towards the impatient woman and bowed his head in defeat.

"Okay, I'll listen," he murmured, almost at a whisper.

She replied hastily with a command. "Alright now, James, stand up!"

James attempted to stand up but his arms were of no use, for they were tied in front of him and could not push his body up to a stand. Jezebel put her whip down a safe distance from James and began to lift his other shoulder, the one not broken. Soon James was standing. Jezebel firmly clutched his elbow as she led him into the bathroom where he would be washed off.

Jesse was almost to the estate. They were just beginning to drive down James's long driveway, and it would be another 15 minutes before they reached the end. Pikachu was now sitting on Ash's lap and talking to Jesse as Meowth translated his language into human tongue. The rodent was not saying anything mean or threatening; he was offering Jesse a hand in her rescue of James.

"Why, that's really nice of you, Pikachu. This is sort of reminding me of last time we were all at the estate."

Ash turned around and added to the conversation.

"Then Growly should be here too then, right?"

Brock looked doubtful.

"Jezebel probably has him locked away so that he can't save James like he did last time."

"Ugh, Brock, why do you always have to state the obvious!" Misty groaned.

She was sick and tired of this journey to help Team Rocket, because last time they had met up, her starmie had to be brought to a pokemon center for treatment. Of course, Team Rocket had been blasted off into the swamp, but it still wasn't fair. Why was Ash suddenly being so nice? On the St. Anne, it was she that was helping Team Rocket escape the sunken ship. "I guess Ash just wants to be the hero of POOR Team Rocket," she thought to herself.

Finally, the group arrived at James's estate. They pulled up to the front door of the gigantic mansion and Ms. Ketchum pressed the button to pop the trunk. Jesse fell out on the gravel with a thud, and Meowth jumped out, careful to avoid Jesse's body.

"You alright, Jess?" he asked nervously as he stood above her.

"Yeah, Meowth, I'm just a little tired, that's all."

"Don't worry, after we rescue James, you'll get all the sleep you lost back."

Misty cut in. "No, Jesse and James are not going to be getting ANY sleep once they're back together." She giggled slyly.

Jesse stood up quickly and towered over Misty as she glared her down. To the surprise of everyone, however, Jesse didn't say anything against the comment. She just glared.

Brock looked to end the tension. "I don't think we can just ring the doorbell and walk in. We'll have to climb onto the roof."

Twitching his tail anxiously, Pikachu began to chatter. "Pi-pika-chu-pika-pika-chu. Pika-pikachu!"

"What's he saying, Meowth?" Misty asked.

The feline translated. "Pikachu says dat we should go get Growly outta his mansion so dat he can help us rescue James an' find a way inta da house."

Ash, Misty, Brock, and Jesse nodded.

"We better do that then," Brock commented. Ash jogged over to his mother's open driver's side window and told her to stay put.

"Once we rescue James, we'll need a getaway car."

Ms. Ketchum looked troubled. "Ash, is what we're doing illegal?"

"No, Mom," the preteen replied. "Jezebel kidnapped James and is holding him captive. He does not want to be with her."

"Yeah," Misty added, "he'd rather be with Jesse."

A look of pure delight came over Jesse's face and her eyes twinkled with happiness. Right when Ash and Misty looked over, though, she wiped the look off her face.

The group then ran over to get Growly out of his house.

Jezebel shoved James roughly into the bathroom and locked the door behind them. "Now, James, Ah'll help ya'll get rid of these filthy clothes!"

She took a pair of scissors and cut off his tattered shirt, but she only had to make a few snips here and there, for the shirt was practically gone already. When she got to cutting off the pants, though, James could not help but pull away.

"I will NOT let you cut off my pants!" he yelled in a whiny tone. "I will NOT let you see me without clothes on!"

James had rebelled in vain. Jezebel cornered him with the scissors and snipped away at his pants until only his boxers remained. The poor man stood there in shock and fright, avoiding the snip of the scissors and the pull of Jezebel's arms. Eventually, after ten minutes of not catching James, Jezebel went to the large bathroom cupboard in the far corner of the room. James sighed, hoping that she was finally done chasing him around. He watched intently as his fiancée pulled a horsewhip out of the cupboard and snapped it treacherously about her head.

"How many of those does she have?" he moaned in thought. Jezebel hastily power-walked her way back over, horsewhip in hand, cracking it every so often. "Oh, no…." James softly groaned. He backed as closely to the wall as he could, in silence of the pain that was to come to him in a few seconds. The horrid woman spoke to him as she continued terrifying him with her threatening cracks of the whip.

"R'memba when Ah said ya'll are gettin' a spankin'? Well, Ah neva break promises!"

James shuddered and began to literally sink to the ground in fear, whilst Jezebel snapped the whip around his ankles, causing him to jump up at the sting. The thin leather strap left gigantic red welts all over the bottom of his legs. He attempted to dodge the weapon, but the ten-foot strap was too quick for him. The stinging burning pain spread from his feet all the way to his head.

The fierce woman spoke as she continued hurting James.

"Now, James, are ya'll gonna listen ta me? Or would ya rather not be able ta sit for a few weeks?"

Jezebel now aimed the whip higher, cracking near his most vulnerable area. The fearful man flinched away from the whip and ran all the way across the room. As he ran past the bathtub, Jezebel flicked the whip around his ankle and he tripped on it and fell on his face. As he attempted to get up, Jezebel unclipped a pokeball from her skirt and threw it at the ground.

"Vileplume, GO!"

Within seconds there was a standoff. James stood beside the tub, clad only in boxers, across from the vileplume, as smelly as ever. Jezebel cleared her throat.

"James, do ya want my vileplume ta put ya asleep again? Won't ya'll evah learn? Will ya jus' listen ta me an' get inta the tub?"

"Jezebel, don't you understand? I don't want to marry you! I don't love you, I love Jesse--"

James immediately stopped speaking as his face turned red with sheer embarrassment. Since his pants and belt were gone, he could move his tied-up hands to his face to rub away the redness he could feel crawling from the skin on his face all the way down to his feet.

"You can't love Jesse anymore, James. Team Rocket's gonna KILL her!"

She burst out in fits of raucous laughter. She laughed so hard that she clutched her stomach and doubled over. Tears were coming out of her eyes.

"B-b-but… why would they want Jesse… killed? She's a better Rocket than I am. I should have… been killed before her…"

A look of disbelief was on his face, mixed with a bit of real deep-down worry.

"Oh, ya silly fool, they already tried ta kill ya!" Jezebel laughed again. Within seconds, however, she suddenly stopped laughing. James could see that she had made a mistake, said too much perhaps.

"What do you mean 'they already tried to kill me'?"

"Hehehe…." Jezebel chuckled nervously. "Well, ya know, that was years ago…."

"Why were you dressed like Jesse today?" James looked angry and was not going to fall for her lies. He suspected that her outfit from today HAD to be from the Team Rocket HQ.

"Ah know that ya love Jesse." She seemed agitated by the thought and spoke with a harsh tone. "Ah dressed up like her so that ya'll'd think that Ah was Jesse."

"And where did you get the uniform?"

"I made it."

James became brave. He decided to make a statement that would enrage Jezebel if it were true.

"How did ol' Butch's stomach taste?"

Jezebel just looked at him, glared him down. Her face turned bright red and her fist clenched around the whip. It was impossible to hide the rage inside her. She began to stutter angrily.

"What… do you mean…Butch?"

"You know what I am talking about, Jezebel."

"NO, AH DON'T!" Jezebel then raised the whip and slashed James's skin to shreds as he fell to the ground, pulling himself into a ball that protected his face and other parts he didn't want hurt. The beating continued.

Suddenly, as fast as it had started, the beating stopped. James lay panting, cut up and bloody on the ground. He could barely move his stiff stinging limbs, so he just remained on the floor, groaning from the intense pain all over his back, legs, backside, and shoulders, the easy places for Jezebel to hit. Jezebel, with whip in one hand, pointed at James with the other.

"Vileplume, put him ta sleep jus' like you've always done!"

Immediately, Vileplume released the sleep powder and stun spore in one large cloud of tranquilizer. Within seconds, James was unconscious.


	15. It All Wraps Up

Ash, Misty, Brock, Jesse, and Meowth soon reached Growly's estate. The familiar barking was not heard, however, and the door was locked.

"Growly," Jesse coaxed at the door. "If you're in there, bark!"

The group listened for a while, then a few seconds later with no response, decided that maybe the pokemon had already broken out of his house. Ash started towards the main entrance door of the gigantic mansion.

Misty called out after him.

"What the hell are you doing, Ash? Are you going to ring the doorbell and politely ASK Jezebel for James back?"

Jesse began to walk around the side of the house, hoping to find some other door or partially open window on the first or basement floor. Meowth soon followed. The two youngest kids were still fighting over Ash's brainless attempt at manners. Mrs. Ketchum was standing outside of her car, arms folded nervously as she watched her son fighting the redhead in front of a potentially dangerous place. If they could kidnap an adult man, they could easily kidnap kids.

"Ash," she yelled. "Stop fighting there. That's a dangerous place to be. We should just go now."

"Sorry, Mom," the dark-haired boy replied. He headed in the direction that Brock had discovered Jesse had gone.  
Soon an excited yip erupted from the east wing side of the mansion.

"Look, a propped open window!" Ash exclaimed.

James regained consciousness in the water. As he looked around stunned, he realized he was in a large vat of water. He was naked except for his little boxers that crumpled up in the cold water. Shivering, he pulled his boxers back into shape and glared at the figure before him.

"Jezebel, why am I here?" he demanded to know. The unconsciousness had caused him to temporarily forget.

The evil woman approached him closely.

"We are getting' married soon, but as of right now, ya'll are a terrible mess for any weddin'."

Jezebel came over to James and retched his broken arm behind his back. James screamed at the top of his lungs; nothing had ever hurt him so much. 

As Jesse crept into the house with the long chain of followers, a loud scream was heard, echoing throughout the house.

"It's James!" she cried.

As Ash, Brock, and Misty poured into the house, the trembling woman turned to them and dipped her head low.

"I thank you for helping me, so dearly I do, but could you let me actually do the rescuing myself? Please…." She felt a little embarrassed and blushed at her request.

Ash stood still and crossed his arms. "Are you going to give us any--"

Misty cut the boy off with her fist as she dreamily murmured to the sky, "Awww, how sweet… Now, Ash, shut UP! Does it really matter? As long as she leaves Pikachu alone we'll know she carried out her end of the deal!"

The three kids and Pikachu hastily made their way back outside the mansion. Meowth began to follow her, but Jesse pointed at him with a yell.

"I meant you too, you mangy cat!" As he turned to leave, Jesse smiled selfishly. She then heard another scream from the basement. 

"OWWWW! STOP DOING THAT! I HATE YOU, JEZEBEL!"

James kicked and flailed around in the tub as Jezebel tried to cuff his hands together.

"Ah… have… to wash you… James!" she stammered out during the battle.

Finally, James stopped slipping on the smooth tub bottom and stood up to attempt his escape from the slippery trap. As soon as he was up, he felt a draft where his boxers had been. He looked down, and while hearing the giggling from Jezebel, he realized what had happened, and pulled his soggy boxers back up from around his ankles.

James managed to sneak out of the tub while Jezebel was still giggling giddily and clutching her sides; however, as she saw his figure looming towards the door, she grabbed his boxers and forced him back toward her. The blue-haired man desperately needed to escape. Should he forget his modesty and make a run for it? He could run faster than she could in that dress….

Jezebel pulled him back as hard as she could, then wanted to make some fun of it and began to change that direction to a downward one. Knowing just what she wanted to do, James abandoned all his fears and let her pull them completely down. As she began to giggle once again, he ran towards the door, unlocked it, and hastily opened it to escape. Feeling the redness enter his face and neck with full force, he looked back once at the laughing lady and covered as much as he could to resist total inexplicable embarrassment, and realized she was after him again.

As he turned back around to face the direction he was running, a person standing in the way made him fall over. He fell down as the person fell on top of him. It was a woman! She was draped over him!

He immediately scooted away, on hands and knees, towards the bathroom door as the woman tried to get up. The poor guy, being as pitiful and vulnerable as he was, didn't even look into the face of the female. Instead, he kept backing up until he reached a throw rug and draped it over his body. His eyes were still cast to the floor, totally humiliated and sorry for startling the woman by running out so quickly and so immodestly.

Suddenly, a sharp kick from the back end sent him sprawling back on the floor, onto the mystery woman's feet. She was wearing boots, tall, thigh-high boots. Could it be?

The boots moved quickly towards who James knew had kicked him… Jezebel. The person up above spoke.

"Don't you get it? He hates you! He is not going to marry you! Arghhh!"

With a loud yell the women clashed, wrestling in the hallway. The kneeling, hunched over figure of James turned around to witness the fight. It was indeed Jesse! He couldn't believe the smile that spread across his face the second he realized that Jesse had come to save him! Arriving back at reality, James saw that Jezebel had her whip wrapped around Jesse's neck. She was strangling her!

Forgetting about his nudity, he leapt up and grabbed Jezebel around the neck as the throw rug fell off of his body. He wrenched her away from Jesse, who collapsed to the ground attempting to catch her breath. As the adrenaline pumped through his veins he picked up Jezebel and flung her body into the bathroom. He then closed and locked the door from the outside so as to hinder her greatly without killing her. He then grabbed his boxers from the edge of the doorway and put them back on as Jesse looked up at him from her place on the ground.

As he stood there, the vision of the handsome, muscular, scantily dressed man flooded into Jesse's eyes. She stood up as quickly as possible and walked up to him as he stood by the door, still panting heavily from the struggle. James was her man at that moment. She looked deeply into his jade eyes as he returned the gaze. Suddenly, James turned away. Tears filled his eyes as he stared downwards, turning back towards her.

"I'm so sorry for putting you through this, Jesse…" he murmured apologetically, waiting for a hit of agreement.

Instead of the usual slap from his partner, he was shocked to receive a warm passionate kiss on his lips. Soon he joined in with the sensual kissing and the new lovers were encased in an endless liplock… A beautiful moment until Jezebel broke out of the bathroom and ran directly at the embracing pair, an insane sneer on her face. A towel rack bar was in her hands, horizontal, intending to knock over both people standing in her way.

"James… Prepare for trouble!"

"Make that double!" James exclaimed.

Immediately, James whisked Jesse back from the impending danger and they stumbled backwards towards the balcony overlooking the main gym-room of the dungeon. It was an unexpected move for Jezebel; she kept running and stopped as soon as she had collided with an orange dog-like pokemon.

"Growly!" Jesse said happily. The poke-dog was too busy to wag a reply, for he was cornering Jezebel and growling menacingly at her.

"Puh-leez get this dog away from me! Why does it always hafta interfere with mah perfect plans?" She held both hands up defensively as Growly forced her to the wall.

As Jezebel screamed with no response, the door creaked open and a lustful Butch entered the hallway.

"Oh, there you are, baby!" he croaked excitedly as soon as he saw the southern belle. He ran over, picked Jezebel up, and threw her over his shoulder within an instant. As he walked away with Jezebel on his shoulder, it seemed to Jesse and James that she liked the treatment.

"Ohh, you're mah hero!" she sighed. "Ah hate that pokemon! But that rough treatment jus' now was purty nice; Ah neva had that kinda treatment before!"

All that the staring Team Rocket pair could see as Jezebel and Butch left was her putting her arms around his neck.

James looked back at Jesse, his long time secret love.

"I think they'll have a good life together," he joked to Jesse.

After a bit of forced laughter at their near-death situation, an awkward pause came. James was standing there before Jesse, clad only in small wet boxers. The silence was unbearable. Jesse filled it in.

"Uh… James… How do you feel about quitting Team Rocket?"

The smile from James answered before his mouth did.

"Yes…. It will be easy. They think that we are dead…."

Jesse was so happy that she gave him another kiss, more of a quick peck on the cheek. They held each other in a tight embrace. James blushed.

"You know what? I think we are dead, because I am in heaven right now…."

"And we can start our lives anew," Jesse added. "You and me. But we must take care of Giov--"

James interrupted her with a soft kiss. Jesse immediately stopped talking, followed his lead, and let herself lean against him, feeling the strength that he contained, never showing until now.

The two walked together hand in hand back to the window she had entered. Meowth met them outside the mansion, chuckling under his breath.

"Ya know, James," he started, "You really got to work on your pick-up lines."

Jesse's face flushed as the anger rose in her. "ARE… YOU SAYING... THAT YOU WERE DOWN THERE WITH US?"

The paper fan lingered above his head as the pokemon signaled a surrender.

"I'm just kiddin' guys, I wasn't down dere. I just guessed at what happened, dat's all."

He cringed, expecting the punishment, but Jesse dropped the fan and let it lay on the grass as the three walked back to the station wagon and Brock, Ash, Misty, and Pikachu.

Once there, Team Rocket thanked the group and insisted that they didn't need a ride. After the car sped away, Jesse, James, and Meowth glanced at each other, then at the gigantic mansion before them.

James turned to Jesse.

"Why don't we start off our new life by acquiring my inheritance, even if it's not all of it? Jezebel is now with Butch. I deserve that inheritance, for all the suffering I've had to put up with around here."

As he began to walk toward the door, an unexpected pull from Jesse held him back.

"What's wrong, Jesse?"

"James, we can make it fine on our own. Haven't we always done that?"

"And we'll never fight again! I hate fights!"

"I will try, James, but everyone must contribute to the well-being of our group. Now, let's go rent ourselves a hotel room!"

Jesse and James exchanged suggestive glances all the way. And Meowth felt an urge to rent a separate room.


End file.
